[Biblical-languages] Unicode Hebrew on Mac
Peter Kirk
peterkirk at qaya.org
Fri Feb 18 19:42:56 EST 2005
On 18/02/2005 21:20, James Ernest wrote:
>Can anyone point me to good advice on Unicode Hebrew on the Mac platform?
>More specifically, I gather that MS Word for Mac under OSx can handle
>Unicode but not Open Type. Are there Unicode fonts that will display Hebrew
>properly (right to left) with Mac Word?
>
>
>
The problem is actually that Word 2004 for Mac cannot handle right to
left or complex scripts. It cannot be fixed by choice of font. In fact
Office on Windows supports at least unpointed Hebrew rather well with
TrueType fonts like Times New Roman and Arial, but Office on the Mac
cannot even do this. So the issue is not with OpenType, but with basic
RTL support.
This is an issue with an infamous history, enough so that the Israeli
Ministry of Commerce blacklisted Microsoft, see
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/14/israel_slams_the_door/. And
Microsoft failed to fix the problem in Office 2004. The basic problem
seems to be that there is such a fundamental inconsistency between
Word's internal handling of RTL languages (Arabic as well as Hebrew) and
OS X's system level support for them that, in Microsoft's judgment, the
cost of fixing the problem outweighed the loss of their markets and
reputation in an entire region of the world. This was probably a very
shortsighted decision, because it played right into the hands of rivals
like OpenOffice, see
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/24/ms_scorns_israeli_openoffice_defection/.
James, the moral for you is not to mix Microsoft and non-Microsoft if
you want Hebrew support. Either use Microsoft Office on Microsoft
Windows (actually OpenOffice on Windows should be fine), or on OS X use
a word processor which is able to use its system level Hebrew support.
Some are listed at
http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/utilities_editors_macosx.html - although
in fact rather few support Hebrew properly, as is clear from the screen
shots.
--
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/
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